Conventionally, SMPTE 292, ITU-R Recommendation BT. 1120, and ARIB standard BTA S-004 have been known as standards for an HDTV signal serial digital interface (HD-SDI).
The HD-SDI standard implementing a 1.5-Gbit/s speed has as a prerequisite an HDTV signal with effective number of pixels of 1920 (number of horizontal pixels)×1080 (number of vertical lines), with 60 fields (30 frames) per second, a 4:2:2 format (the number of pixel ratio between the luminance signal Y and the color difference signals CB and CR being 4:2:2, with the color difference signals CB and CR sub-sampled 2:1 in the horizontal direction with respect to the luminance signal Y), and 10 bits/pixel. Subsequently, standard SMPTE 372 has been created, which, by using two HD-SDIs, enables transmission of a progressively scanned signal of 60 frames per second, a signal having a 4:4:4 format or a 12 bit/pixel. Additionally, in order to achieve the same transmission capacity as when using two HD-SDI signals of 1.5 Gbit/s, the HD-SDI standard SMPTE 424 has been created, capable of transmitting at a speed of 3 Gbit/s with one signal.
Also, in addition to SMPTE 435-1, 435-2, and 435-3 as standards for transmitting video signals with one to eight HD-SDIs, within one 10-Gbit/s interface, SMPTE 2036-3 is known as a serial digital interface standard for a UHDTV (ultra high-definition television) signal that has double or quadruple the number of pixels of an HDTV signal in each of the horizontal and vertical directions. This standard sets forth a method of performing pixel mapping to divide a UHDTV signal into a plurality of sub-images corresponding to HDTV signals, these being represented by HD-SDI signals on a plurality of channels and transmitted by a plurality of 10-Gbit/s interfaces.
As a specific method, a technique has been disclosed whereby pixels of a frame in a UHDTV signal are sub-sampled every two pixels and mapped onto four sub-images, the mapped pixels being mapped to HD-SDI signals on eight channels, scrambled, and subjected to 8B/10B encoding processing or the like, a plurality of 10-Gbit/s interfaces being used for transmission (for example, refer to Patent Reference 1). This enables a UHDTV video signal with a number of pixels exceeding the number of pixels of an HD-SDI signal to be transmitted by existing 10-Gbit/s interfaces.